NSA Releases Email From Snowden: Did Not Report Abuse or Wrongdoing

Edward Snowden claims he sent numerous emails to NSA officials and the Office of General Counsel, trying to “blow the whistle” before he decided it wasn’t working and he needed to steal as much top secret material as he could before fleeing the country.

U.S. officials once disputed NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s claim that he had raised questions about the agency’s domestic surveillance programs before he fled the U.S. with thousands of stolen documents, but now confirm that Snowden sent at least one email about the agency’s practices to officials.

In an exclusive interview with NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, Snowden said he had warned the NSA while working as an NSA contractor that he felt the agency was overstepping its bounds.

“I actually did go through channels, and that is documented,” he asserted. “The NSA has records, they have copies of emails right now to their Office of General Counsel, to their oversight and compliance folks, from me raising concerns about the NSA’s interpretations of its legal authorities. … The response more or less, in bureaucratic language, was, ‘You should stop asking questions.’”

But guess what? The NSA now says they’ll be releasing the sole email Edward Snowden sent to the Office of General Counsel — and it has nothing to do with reporting wrongdoing or abuse.